flooding garden - help

[pixiesue]

Hi,
just bought a new home.The garden is unlevel and dips hence it floods like a swimming pool.I intend to get 1 - 2 tonne of topsoil to level but i would like to put some king of cheap drainage system in so it does not happen again.
Someone said i can excavate a pit fill with gravel then topsoil it all.Any help or ideas appreciated

 

[breezer]

try a search on google. french drains, drains

 

[pixiesue]

yes ive seen the french drains also a soakpit but which do you think is the best method for working

 

[breezer]

depends which is better for you / your garden

 

[pixiesue]

dopes anyone have any personal experience of this problem if so did they try the above and it worked or didnt work???

 

[diyken]

The first thing to do is find out if you have a high water-table, in other words is the site on a hill or in a valley. If it's the latter the only real solution will be to raise the level of the garden providing you don't end up flooding the house. The ground level should be 150mm beneath the damp course. If the water table is high then no amount of soakaways, drains and such like will take it away because it will probably flow back to where it came from. On the other hand, if the site isn't too low it might be worth exploring the sub-soil immediately beneath the garden. It might be a heavy clay for a foot or two with a well drained strata beneath. If this is the case then a few drains laid to a some gravel-filled holes that penetrate the clay layer should do the trick.

Good Luck

 

[pixiesue]

Hi,
thanks for reply.Im goint to dig a 2 x 2 hole along length of lawn to see if it works fill with gravel then top soil it

 

[masona]

Put a heavy duty plastic sheet on top of the gravel before the top soil otherwise it will wash down the top soil into the gravel and clogged it up.

 

[pixiesue]

do you put holes in the plastic sheeting? to allow water through

 

[masona]

No, just make sure it's plenty overlap the gravels area.

Also see this at the bottom of the page.

 

[pixiesue]

many thanks